Cashless debit card trial to expand in WA

The federal government’s cashless debit card will be expanded to Western Australia’s Goldfields region after legislation cleared the Senate.Existing sites in Ceduna in South Australia and WA’s East Kimberley area will have their trials extended to June 2019 after the Nick Xenophon Team and other crossbenchers supported the bill.Under the scheme, 80 per cent of a welfare recipient’s income is loaded onto a non-cash debit card which cannot be used to gamble or buy alcohol.The NXT’s lone lower house MP Rebekha Sharkie voted against the bill last week, which then included rollouts in Hervey Bay and Bundaberg in Queensland.The NXT’s crucial Senate voting bloc were expected to block the trial’s growth, but compromised with the single expansion site in the Goldfields on Monday night.Labor opposed any new trial sites, arguing there was insufficient evidence to show the existing trials were working.